Innovation

The company aims to have its products in every household in Spain. Their products would measure the energy consumption of the households and in this way, use the utilities more efficiently. Also, the idea is that the information and the advice about the consumption would be shown through an app, which would help you to understand the way you are consuming and how you can optimize it.

The company has received a lot of investment from different entities, and in this manner, the people involved in the business knew that what they were doing was big and influential, and could also have an impact on the world. Using their platform and devices a household can save up to 30% in bills from energy consumption, thus, this does not only leave a positive impact environmentally but also with Spanish household’s pockets. It is a win-win idea where the challenge is set by yourself, as you create the habits with the help of Hobeen.

In this way, Hobeen is leaving its mark on the world, teaching people how they can act from their homes and change our current situation. Therefore, it perfectly fits for the role of achieving the 11, 12, and 13 goals of the SDGs set by the UN.

Inspiration

About two years ago, Mario Fernandez Iglesias and five other people decided to join an entrepreneurship contest at the University of Navarra: they had to find a problem and give potential solutions. They started asking people in Spain to see find a common problem and realized that people in Spain are not taught about sustainability. He was surprised that no one talks about how domestic heating systems, electricity, and water have an impact on the environment. People, no matter their age, typically did not seem to associate household behavior with the emission of carbon dioxide

Mario wanted everyone to receive some kind of information about sustainable behavior, such as the environmental cost of basic household needs. There was no company in the market or running a business that was focused on the problem. So, eventually, he won the contest and wanted to continue with the idea. The Basque and Spanish governments provided funding and he created Hobeen was inspired to solve that problem.

Overall impact

Hobeen is a very young company driven by important values such as fighting energy waste and helping improve the global warming situation. That´s even the origin of the company´s name: how to be green. To achieve these objectives, Hobeen offers a variety of devices, each with a different function related to energy saving. For example, they have two of devices for reducing water consumption in the shower,an intelligent plug that allows to select the time of switch on/off for a device, a thermostat that allows to control the home temperature from a smartphone...

Hobeen wants to help its costumers reduce their electricity, gas and water consumption. In the short run, customers pay less for electricity, water and gas. In the long run, they expect to make our society greener by reducing househould energy consumption, and also by educating people, boosting their interest and helping them participate more actively to fight climate change. Hobeen gives free information through its platform, and they encourage the users of the app to be more energy efficient with a system of challenges and rewards that increases the engagement with the platform. Depending on the number of clients, Hobeen aims to reduce up to 30% of carbon emmisions in spaniards households, and save thousands of euros to its clients.

Business benefit

The innovation made by Hobeen has clearly an impact on the customer pattern of managing energy consumption. But how does this innovation benefit Hobeen?

There are several benefits that Hobeen receives from this: first, they get a good brand reputation and company perception, especially for the young-adults sector. Also, they can get a key position in the growing market of efficiency and sustainability, which has appeared in recent years due to the increasing importance of climate change.

So, in the first point, we said that Hobeen can achieve have a positive perception of its company by the customers, which will bring a good brand reputation to the firm. This is mainly because it is a sustainable business that tries to do something beneficial for the planet. And people nowadays, especially for the younger generations, it is a positive factor that they appreciate, as they have an increasing tendency to buy products from green firms instead of their normal counterparts that pollute more. This last part can be identified with the higher involvement against climate change that is arising in our society.

Then, they also have a good opportunity to get a key position in the “green market” which has grown a lot in the last years, because they have developed an interesting idea that can allow them to have a strong market share in the Spanish sector in the future. At the moment Hobeen has not a big number of sales, but we have to take into account that they have received considerable grants because of their compromise to reduce climate change.

Social and environmental benefit

This innovation benefits both society and the environment. It helps society by explaining how important it is to be responsible for the energy waste we produce in our own homes and emphasizes the big waste of both, energy and money, that is produced when we don’t pay attention to our irresponsible consumption. As Mario Fernández, the CEO of the Hobeen, said “we give free information to everybody through our platform to be more efficient and sustainable from their households.” Their approach is really interesting, as Hobeen tries to link the saving of energy with money savings, and this will definitely capture the attention of many clients, this will help a lot according to Fernandez who affirms that “We are going to be the ones that provide the tools, but the clients are the ones who are going to save the planet.”

Hobeen also benefits the environment by potentially reducing significantly the energy consumption of the majority of households of Spain, with the help of new technologies such as home automation. There is a big percentage of carbon emissions that are produced by the waste of the households that could be easily reduced with the help of Hobeen products.

Interview

Mario Fernández Iglesias, CEO and major shareholder